Letter of the Week

Arguably the most disturbing event of this week was the Gurgaon school shootout. M. Salahuddin, from Mumbai...

Arguably the most disturbing event of this week was the Gurgaon school shootout. M. Salahuddin, from Mumbai, tried to make sense of that development ‘Our violent kids’. His suggestion — that parents and teachers have a role to play in overseeing what children watch on television and in providing the necessary perspective — needed to be made. This week’s award goes to him.

•The shooting episode at the Euro International School in Gurgaon ‘Gurgaon teen takes Dad…’ may well prove that such incidents are no longer confined to the West. What people fail to acknowledge is that such incidents also reflect the impact of the high level of violence shown in movies, serials, commercials and computer games. Such depiction of violence subliminally incites aggressive behaviour and desensitises children to the consequences of violence. They come to accept higher and higher levels of violence in society or even commit crimes like stabbing, acid-throwing, and even shooting. Over the last three decades or so, violence in the media has increased many-fold. Since ordinary people can do little to influence media content, parents and teachers need to play a pro-active role in overseeing what children watch on television and instil in them an awareness of the dangers of such violence.

Arterial whole

•This has reference to your editorial, ‘Rivers for all’ . Rivers are like blood in a human body, which flows through the veins from the toe to the head. No part of the body can claim that blood belongs to it. The case of rivers which flow cutting across the borders and boundaries of states is no different. We have, at present, many disputes at hand arguing that waters flowing in certain rivers cannot be used by others not belonging to the state. Politicians divide people on the issue all the time, and often it becomes a major election issue. In such a situation, the proposal put forward by Union minister for water resources Saifuddin Soz to identify major rivers as national ones is a step in the right direction.

— K.P. Udayabhanu

New Delhi

Emperors’ frowns

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•The caution voiced by a Supreme Court bench against judges behaving like “emperors” has not come a day too soon. Of late, in the name of judicial activism what we see is judicial arrogance. Many judges have tended to behave like policymakers, conveniently ignoring the fact that they do not have the mandate of the people to do so, especially since the Second Judges Case, where the judiciary itself began selecting fellow judges for appointments. It is high time a National Judicial Commission was formed to look into their selection, transfer and censure.

— Sheriff Ashik Mohideen

Chennai

Judicious reach

•It’s true that that judiciary does not have the requisite wherewithal ‘Let’s not throw the baby out’ for the tasks facing it. The Supreme Court bench’s words of warning are important.

Ultimately nothing can be achieved if there is no political will and an efficient executive. Therefore, the SC is right to point this out. In India we have so many laws and schemes to fight corruption, poverty, protect our wildlife and environment and so on, but how many of them have solved the problems they seek to address? A democracy needs all the three organs of the government to function effectively — just one can’t run democracy.

— Rajat Gupta

Bangalore